The kinetics and mechanistic aspects of oxidation of two aminoglycoside antibiotics, namely, neomycin and streptomycin by permanganate ion (MnO4 - ) in alkaline solutions were examined spectrophotometrically. The stoichiometry of the reactions between the investigated antibiotics and MnO4 - were set to be 8.0  0.3 mol. The reactions exhibited first order dependence regarding to [MnO4 - ] and less-than unit order dependences with respect to antibiotics and OHconcentrations. Under the same investigational conditions, the rate of oxidation of streptomycin was found to be about seven times more than that of neomycin. The impact of ionic strength of the reactions medium was explored which revealed that as the ionic strength increases the oxidation rates are also increased. Also, the influence of temperature was studied and the activation parameters were calculated and discussed. The plausible reactions mechanism was proposed and the appropriate rate-law expression consisted with the acquired investigational kinetic results was derived.